Our landlord has not returned our deposit and the agents have advised us to take it to the Small Claims Court, as it is totally unjustified.
Since we vacated the property the landlord has moved, and therefore we have no current address to serve the papers to.
Has anyone dealt with this situation before?
Any advice would be greatfully received.
Kind regards,
Ruth

PaulF

20-12-2005, 17:07 PM

The agent is in fact acting above his station.

He should not be advising you in any capacity as you are not his client, but if he is foolish enough to do so then send a letter addressed to the landlord c/o the agent stating they advised you to pursue him. I appreciate the agent is trying to be helpful, but if the landlord found out he might be in big trouble!

As the agent will have his previous address then you could send it there or get the agent to forward it. Generally he should not be too difficult to trace but it might take time.

Ericthelobster

20-12-2005, 17:54 PM

The agent is in fact acting above his station. He should not be advising you in any capacity as you are not his client, but if he is foolish enough to do so then send a letter addressed to the landlord c/o the agent stating they advised you to pursue him. I appreciate the agent is trying to be helpful, but if the landlord found out he might be in big trouble!Given that the agent is trying to be helpful to the tenant, why should the tenant go out of his way to dob in the agent to the LL, as you are suggesting? But in any case, if the agent doesn't know the LL's whereabouts anyway, how will writing this letter help the tenant find him?

Or am I missing a point here?!

davidjohnbutton

20-12-2005, 20:38 PM

Serve the papers to the last known address. That is good service for the county court.

A little tip - use the land registry online search facility at £2 a go to check the address you have for the landlord and the address you rented - if they are still in the landlords name (which might also reveal a new address for service as well) then you can obtain a charging order against one or the other property.

rufus

21-12-2005, 15:41 PM

Thanks for the replies.
Sorry, I had tried to keep the question brief and therefore the first bit is misleading. The agents have acted responsibly, but as stakeholders of the deposit they have said (in a Without Prejudice letter) that if we want to get our deposit back we will need to go to Court. They do think we are right to do so, and if you could see what the claims of the Landlord are, believe me so would you. They have advised their client, the landlord, that they do not have a good (or even legal!) case, and are very embarassed by the whole situation, but they can't do any more than that.
We will be serving the papers to the last known address, and also advising the courts of the rental property address. We had been told that you cannot serve papers care of the agents. Hopefully this will be suffient and perhaps the court will enter judgement by default.
Thanks again

MrShed

21-12-2005, 16:27 PM

If the landlord is still a client of the agent, you can certainly send letters care of the agent, which the agent must then pass onto the landlord. Whether serving papers is different, I am not sure, but would not have thought so.